“Discuss the relationship between stress, anxiety, habits and describe how you would treat these issues with hypnotherapy”.

Introduction
Common requests for hypnotherapy treatment are those related to stress, anxiety, habits and phobias. An understanding of the relationship between these disorders, examining the similarities and the differences between each, provides the therapist with information useful in deciding how and if to treat these disorders. It could also be argued that the uniqueness of each client and each set of symptoms demands the therapist to review each case on a one to one basis and not to blur the boundaries between each of these types of disorders, which may in turn result in a less effective form of treatment
When the body prepares to deal with a threat blood pressure and heart rate are increased, sweating is increased, bloodflow to the major muscle groups is increased, and immune and digestive system functions are inhibited, engaging the fight or flight syndrome as also sometimes experienced by those suffering from stress.
Treating Anxiety with Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy can help with the treatment of anxiety in a number of ways. Firstly, the treatment can help clients to manage the symptoms of their anxiety. For example, Hadley and Staudacher recommend the use of ‘coping statements’ within the hypnotherapy to increase the client’s ability to compose and recover themselves in situations in which they find themselves suffering from anxiety.
Similarly, clients suffering from anxiety should also be provided with the knowledge and skills needed for self-hypnosis so that they can continue the work of the therapist between sessions but also in situations in which they face a level of anxiety.
Research provided by the British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis support this. The outcome and process of treating subclinical anxiety with self-hypnosis and relaxation were compared. Twenty individuals who presented for treatment for stress,